Bad Astronomy

Philip Plait, an astronomer who works for the NASA Education and Public Outreach Group at Sonoma State University in California. He also moonlights by running a Web site called badastronomy.com and has published a book on that subject.

Orlando Sentinel

My name is Philip Plait and I work at the physics and astronomy department at Sonoma State University, a member of the California State University system. The campus is about 60 kilometers north of San Francisco. I am currently working on a NASA-sponsored public outreach program for a satellite named GLAST (Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope). I just started this job in December of 2000 and I am very excited to be a part of such a great program to educate people about high-energy astronomy. Let me state here that I am not a NASA employee, and anything I say, pretty much ever, is not the official word from NASA! I always speak for no one but myself.

Bad Astronomy

My group at SSU has NASA grants to develop educational materials. However (and this is critical, so pay attention), working for NASA means being a civil servant, a public employee. I am not. I am employed by SSU, not NASA. Also, I am not a professor. Not everyone who works at a University is faculty. I speak neither for NASA nor SSU. I only speak for myself. Anything I say I base on my experience and education. Any mistakes I make are mine as well.

Phil Plait, on GLP Message Board.

Long a debunker, Phil of the Bad Astronomy web site was challenged on the Apr 25, 2003 Coast to Coast radio show by George Noory to debate Nancy on the Planet X issue. He accepted, and announced on his web site afterwards that he would do so. Nancy asserted on the IRC the next day, to Phil's face, that he would not accept the debate, a point he firmly denied. Phil is now scheduled to appear on C2C Tues night May 13th, but Nancy has not received an invitation.

(MikeO) Nancy, did you notice how Phil Plait "just happened" to be one of the first callers last night?

(Zod2) Mike I was thinking the same about PHIL

(JohnnyM) Nancy, Phill Plaitt balked at the debate, did you notice

(NancyL) MikeO, Phil was allowed to be one of the first callers, and I doubt he will actually accept a debate with the Zetas. He was already hedging.

(NancyL) Corona, I HOPE Phil will, as the Zetas will rip him apart. He does not do his homework, and is just passing along stuff he hears.

(Maxemilln) BadAstro is Phil Plaite.

(JohnnyM) Phill, why did you hesitate when asked the question about a debate?

(BadAstro) If I am scared, Ms. Lieder, why am I here now?

(BadAstro) I am not interested, actually, in debating PX here and now. Just wondering why Nancy is saying things about me that are not true

Rather than face a debate with the Zetas, and lose, Phil ran to daddy NASA for support! A NASA Article dated May 5, 2003.

Niburu and Other Nonsense

The wild stories about an approaching planet or comet are false! ... also there have been no unusual levels of earthquakes ... try Google searches on ‘Niburu’ or ‘Nancy Leider’. If you want the real story on Nibiru or Planet X, check out the following website http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/index.html.

 

 Phil Plait was scheduled, and on the C2C web site as such by the week ending May 9th. Nancy was not invited until the last minute. The invitation came from C2C on Monday afternoon, May 12th for a C2C debate the night of May 13th.